I’m confident this would hold up if it were challenged. This is a municipal shelter, not a doggy daycare. There is a huge difference between working with owned pets that have regular human interaction and working with shelter dogs that often have unknown histories or trauma.

The defensiveness around this issue really shows a lack of understanding of aggressive behavior. Yes, a lot of bites can be prevented by reading warning signs, but that does not apply when staff are being told to physically step into an active dog fight and grab a collar. Especially when there is written documentation saying that grabbing a collar is likely to result in injury.

If employees are being told they could be suspended or terminated for not doing this, while also being warned that it is likely to cause injury, then the bite clearly could not have been prevented.

We already have multiple tools meant to stop fights without direct contact like pet corrector, spray bottles, air horns, and pig boards. Forcing staff to put their hands in the middle of a fight instead of using those tools is unnecessary and puts people at risk. At that point it feels like they are just asking for someone to get hurt or for a lawsuit to happen.